Spring is in the air..

[Nesikep]

I think the celebration is a little early, but the cows are feeling spring in the air... They're starting to fight and frolic, they don't walk behind the feed truck, they run and kick their butts in the air.. and when a gravity constrained cow like Mega launches herself 2 feet up, it's pretty impressive, and hilariously funny. Kama and a few of the corralled cows run and grunt as I walk to their hay pile too..
It all happened quite suddenly about 2-3 days ago.. the sun is MUCH higher in the sky and the days are longer.. mid winter it's pretty much dark at 4, now 5:30 still has some daylight.
The ranch across the river has a couple calves now.. the big rush will be on in a week I'm sure for them.. I've still got 5 weeks to go before the first one drops.

Then we got the two 'pet' ravens.. OK, they aren't quite pets, but they're certainly farm residents.. They're in the field courting, and kissing in the top of the dead fir tree by the house.. They get fed 2 morsels of bread or meat scraps every day, once in a while they'll fly over me and do somersaults in the air.. Not sure if that means 'please' or 'thank you'. They are definitely a monogamous couple, and have never given us any grief with calves... They actually chase other ravens and eagles from here... and they know better than to eat our cherries too.

We've also got a little pygmy owl roosting at night under the porch, see it hunting in the daytime once in a while.. A few years ago I managed to snap a good picture of it with a mouse.

 

[JMJ Farms]

Cool post Nesikep. I'd love to visit your part of the country/continent once in my life. Never been farther north than Missouri. Never been farther west than Texas. Thoroughly enjoyed both.

 

[Nesikep]

If it hadn't been for my job as a traveling service tech, I'd have never seen many parts of the country either... Spent a fair bit of time at Kathleen Ga, Binghamton NY, Chicago, Detroit, Modesto Ca, Lebanon IN, Brush CO, and Houston Tx.. Once in a while I escaped work for a day and went sightseeing.

 

[JMJ Farms]

If it hadn't been for my job as a traveling service tech, I'd have never seen many parts of the country either... Spent a fair bit of time at Kathleen Ga, Binghamton NY, Chicago, Detroit, Modesto Ca, Lebanon IN, Brush CO, and Houston Tx.. Once in a while I escaped work for a day and went sightseeing.

My brother lives in Kathleen. About 45 minutes from me. Warner Robins is still a booming place. Were you doing work at the Air Force base there?

 

[greybeard]

It has sure felt like spring here--nearly 80 last Sunday. Lowest temp I've seen so far was 29-31 degF and only for a couple hrs on 2 different nights back in Jan. Been very windy lately--felt way more like late March than early Feb.

 

[Jogeephus]

My cattle have gone to grazing and left the hay alone. I think things will change next week though.

 

[CaddoFarms]

I need someone to postpone spring please.....I just blew out my knee, no clue how im gonna get everything going for spring :frowns:
I would love to see spring in person where your at though Nesi.

 

[1982vett]

It has sure felt like spring here--nearly 80 last Sunday. Lowest temp I've seen so far was 29-31 degF and only for a couple hrs on 2 different nights back in Jan. Been very windy lately--felt way more like late March than early Feb.

Was thinking the same thing. Feeling like another hot dry summer comming on. Already missed 3 good chances for rain.
.

My cattle have gone to grazing and left the hay alone. I think things will change next week though.

Got my hay tests results back a couple months ago. I was surprised that one wasn't better than it was and have been feeding that while I have a lot of winter grazing. I've been putting out about 2 tons a week for 65 head. Since we were going to be gone over the weekend, I decided to experiment a bit and let them "tell" me if the test was accurate. I put 2 rolls out. One each of this hay and another roll of some over mature stuff from several years ago that tested similar...... Results so far is they really don't want either one. Guess I'm done feeding till everything dies from lack of rain. Not liking how that is already looking.

 

[greybeard]

Vette--do you plant any winter forage?
That's what is keeping mine in pretty good shape right now--I have to do a lot of rotating because of low soil moisture but it's still green and still slowly growing. Bahia and bermuda is all brown tho.

 

[1982vett]

Vette--do you plant any winter forage?
That's what is keeping mine in pretty good shape right now--I have to do a lot of rotating because of low soil moisture but it's still green and still slowly growing. Bahia and bermuda is all brown tho.

Yeah...I planted about 30 acres of oats in October right after that first 4 1/2 inch rain. Had another 20 acres of volunteer ryegrass come up. Lots of winter grasses and clover in the pastures this year thanks to the 30 inches of rain we got between mid October and the end of the year. Turned in on some a couple weeks ago. Pretty sure that is the reason they stopped eating the hay.

Looks like they pretty much took this weekend's chance of rain out. Really could use a little to soften things up a little. Only had 1.3 inches for the year. One good rain and a sprinkle.

 

[JMJ Farms]

Vette--do you plant any winter forage?
That's what is keeping mine in pretty good shape right now--I have to do a lot of rotating because of low soil moisture but it's still green and still slowly growing. Bahia and bermuda is all brown tho.

Yeah...I planted about 30 acres of oats in October right after that first 4 1/2 inch rain. Had another 20 acres of volunteer ryegrass come up. Lots of winter grasses and clover in the pastures this year thanks to the 30 inches of rain we got between mid October and the end of the year. Turned in on some a couple weeks ago. Pretty sure that is the reason they stopped eating the hay.

Looks like they pretty much took this weekend's chance of rain out. Really could use a little to soften things up a little. Only had 1.3 inches for the year. One good rain and a sprinkle.

Wish I could share a little with you. But unfortunately I don't get to decide where it falls. Can hardly stand up here. But they are calling for a dry summer here so I try not to ever fuss about too much.

 

[1982vett]

Looks like they pretty much took this weekend's chance of rain out. Really could use a little to soften things up a little. Only had 1.3 inches for the year. One good rain and a sprinkle.

Wish I could share a little with you. But unfortunately I don't get to decide where it falls. Can hardly stand up here. But they are calling for a dry summer here so I try not to ever fuss about too much.

Farmers got run out of the fields last October. Getting dry enough for them to get back at it. Gotta say, it's nice it's not a muddy mess, but I've got that hot dry summer feeling lurking about. Makes me tired.

 

[Nesikep]

JMJ, I was working at the FritoLay plant a mile or two down the road from Warner Robbins AFB..

Springtime around here isn't that great.. not much turns green.. you go from mud to dust in about a week... Spring is really the least visually impressive season here.. Fall you have some really nice colors, Winter you can have such crystalline snow and hoar frost it makes it really nice as well as fog that rises from the river, leaving only the treetops visible, and summertime you have amazing shades of colors when the wild grasses die... they turn a shade of pink/brown.

We had a spell of rain here 10 days ago.. I think it came down as snow above 7000 ft elevation, so that's comforting for this summer's water supply.. weather forecast says we got no significant cold snaps anymore.. lows of about 24F (-6C) going into March... wouldn't be terribly surprised if this was another hot, dry year

 

[JMJ Farms]

Frito Lay. How bout that. Small world ain't it?

Heard that we may be in for a dry hot summer in the southeast too.

 

[Nesikep]

Many of the places I listed as having seen were either for FritoLay or Nestle.. Texas was Hines Nuts, Detroit was Heinz Ketchup... Chicago was Gold Standard Bakery.. and a few orchards in the great lakes area

Here's a little yarn from those "good old days"
Once I was in the London Ontario area and it fell just on the week of Home Hardware's (hardware store chain) AGM and convention... there wasn't a room available for about 100 miles.. it was late, I called the foreman of the place I was to work at, and he pulled some strings, and I stayed in the loft of what was pretty close to a biker bar... Off to work the next day, all went well, until I got a call that the machine at Nestle was down.. they said I should book a flight, I decided to drive, because by the time I get my luggage (if I wasn't lucky enough to have it get lost) it would be the same time... So it was about a 10 hour trip after a days work, I was beat, I got a few hours sleep, and then fixed Nestle's machine (they're about a half hour west of Chicago). I finished up, jumped back in the car and headed west again, this time around Buffalo and to Niagara, where I had to retrofit a machine the next day... so here I am it's about 10 PM, and I'm in the world honeymoon capital.. I'm in grubby clothes, I've got baggy eyes... I called every motel around (there aren't many), and couldn't find a place to stay.. so I just punched "Lodging" into the GPS and started calling them in the order they came up.. I ended up in a $400 honeymoon suite... The clerk sure had bug eyes when I walked into the door!

 

[greybeard]

'Tis a smart man that honeymoons alone.........

 

[greybeard]

My daddy always said, "Thunder in February, frost in April!"
I saw the first ball lightning I've seen in decades, just a few moments ago, in the middle of a sudden thunderstorm.

 

[Nesikep]

We get little thunder and lightning here... Only when it's about 100F and it hasn't rained in 3 months.. forests are tinderboxes, then we'll get thunder and lightning! (and no rain to go with it.. it just never makes it to the ground)